We often wish people "good luck", as if luck were something outside our control. But is it really? Photo by Yan Ming on Unsplash. Can you find the four-leaf clover? Previously, we looked at how Wealth Comes from Contentment and Prestige Comes from Yielding. This article is about the Chinese proverb, “Fortune comes from accepting criticism” (福在受諫). Interestingly, legendary American investor Ray Dalio expresses a similar sentiment. In his book, Principles, Dalio emphasizes that arrogance in his early years led to his downfall, while humility and radical open-mindedness led to his later fortune and success. He explains radical open-mindedness as "the ability to explore different points of view and different possibilities without letting your ego or blind spots get in your way. It requires you to replace your attachment to always being right with the joy of learning what's true." Another role model of how humility brings fortune is Emperor Tang Taizong, who is considered one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history. If Emperor Tang was wrongfully criticized, he still accepted the criticism with respect and said it was his fault. When others asked him why he didn't correct the criticizer, he said, "If I make others feel bad for trying to criticize me, then people would be scared to criticize me in the future." Emperor Tang wasn't perfect; he still got upset at hearing criticism sometimes, but he always corrected himself. He had a great advisor named Wei Zheng, who was known for providing the Emperor with straightforward and constructive feedback. One time, Emperor Tang returned from a cabinet meeting and angrily told his wife, "Sooner or later I will kill that Wei Zheng! He always contradicts me and embarrasses me in front of everyone!" Upon hearing this, the Empress said, "A subject is only willing to present his honest opinion when the Emperor is wise and open-minded. I would like to congratulate your majesty for having a cabinet member who is not afraid to contradict you, because it is proof of your open-mindedness!" Emperor Tang immediately calmed down and thought of Wei Zheng's integrity and moral character. He later said, "A lot of people think Wei Zheng is a direct and tactless man, but I think those are his very charms." When Wei Zheng passed away, Emperor Tang burst into tears at his funeral. He famously said, "Put a slab of copper as a mirror before me, and I can straighten my robe. Put history as a mirror before me, and I can identify the alarming signs of rise and fall in a dynasty. Have a man as a mirror who reflects my flaws, and I can rectify my mistakes. I constantly keep these three mirrors to prevent me from making mistakes. Now that Wei Zheng has passed away, I have lost a mirror!” Emperor Tang also urged the people around him to be humble and to seek others' criticisms. He told his ministers, "If you can't accept criticism yourself, how can you criticize others?" One time, Emperor Tang saw his son lazily lying under the shade of a tree. He walked up to his son and told him, “A tree often doesn’t grow perfectly straight, but a carpenter can turn it into a straight log strong enough to support a building. A monarch who grows up in a palace cannot know everything and will certainly make mistakes. Only by modestly listening to the advice of his ministers can he correct and straighten himself up and become a worthy emperor.” Heeding his father's advice and learning from his father's example, the son later achieved even greater success as Emperor. Commentary I was especially moved when I heard that Emperor Tang respectfully accepted wrongful criticism so that others would never fear to criticize him. I personally can accept logical criticism, but I often get upset or angry when others wrongfully criticize me. Emperor Tang's role model inspired me to happily accept any and all criticisms. Recently, I told a friend I don't care if I get rich in the future, I wouldn't want that much money anyway. For context, we were talking about how contentment is key to happiness and how greed leads to so many troubles. A few days later, she messaged me saying that I shouldn't be so indifferent towards wealth and that if I get wealthy, I should view it as a good thing because I can use that wealth to help others. At first, I was tempted to say, "Oh yeah I meant I wouldn't be greedy to spend wealth on personal enjoyment. Of course I would use it to help others." But then I remembered that explaining myself gives the impression that I'm not open to criticisms, which means bad luck in the future! Plus, the fact that she would even admonish me is something I ought to be grateful for. Hence I replied, "Wow thank you so much for advising me! You are totally right. If you ever notice me saying or doing anything wrong, please keep advising me!" In my work, sometimes there are mistakes in the tests I make. Whenever students point them out to me, I thank them and praise them in front of the class. I can speak from experience that people like and feel comfortable around someone who is excited and appreciative when hearing criticism. Concluding Thoughts Can I accept rightful criticisms? Can I accept wrongful criticisms? Can I accept wrongful criticisms happily? Only when we can accept wrongful criticisms happily can good advisors and good fortune come. Special thanks to Ray Dalio and Emperor Tang Taizong for their setting a great example! --- Weekly Wisdom #162 Interested in receiving Weekly Wisdoms in your email? You can subscribe here.

Image Source A wealthy businessman was walking along the beach when he was horrified to see a fisherman lying lazily in his boat. "Why aren't you out fishing? There's still lots of time in the day to catch more fish!" said the businessman. "Because I caught enough fish today. After I enjoy this sun for a bit, I'm going to go back home and play with the kids. Then at night, my family is going to meet up with friends to sing and dance." replied the fisherman. "As a wealthy and successful businessman, I advise you to go out there and catch more fish." "What would I do with them?" "You could earn more money," said the businessman. "Then with the extra money, you could buy a bigger boat, go into deeper waters, and catch more fish. Then you would make enough money to buy nylon nets. With the nets, you could catch even more fish and make even more money. With that money you could own two boats, maybe three boats. Eventually you could have a whole fleet of boats and be rich like me." "Then what would I do?" asked the fisherman. "Then," said the businessman, "you could really enjoy life." The fisherman looked at the businessman quizzically and asked, "What do you think I'm doing now?" Commentary After hearing this story, I asked myself, "Am I more like the fisherman or the businessman right now?" In the past, I was definitely more like the businessman. But now I've learned, with much practice, to appreciate and be content with all that I have. Although the businessman has lots of money, it's the fisherman that lives the wealthy life, a life of freedom and happiness. There is a Chinese proverb that says "wealth lies in knowing contentment" (富在知足). If a person has a habit of always wanting more and of not being content with what one already has, then that person will live a life of misery. Only when we can be content with what we already have can be feel free and happy. Some might wonder, does this mean I shouldn't have any ambition to improve my situation? Of course not! But while we work to improve our situation, we should also learn to cultivate contentment and gratitude towards our current situation. Others might wonder, is it bad to seek wealth then? Well, it depends on your purpose for seeking wealth. If it's just for your own personal pleasure, then your life will turn out pretty miserable. As Seneca said, "It is inevitable that life will be not just very short but very miserable for those who acquire by great toil what they must keep by greater toil." But if your purpose for seeking wealth is to benefit the whole society or world, then that is a noble purpose that will bring you a sense of happiness, purpose, and determination. As Jane Goodall said, "We all need money to live but it tends to go wrong when we live for money... Unless we live for money in order to make the world better for animals, people, and the environment." Out of all the people I know, the happiest person I can think of is my grandma. She often tells me contentment is the key to happiness, and she walks the talk. She has very simple living quarters, she eats simple food, she has simple clothes, but everyone knows her for her big smile and zeal for life. She also tells me that giving is the greatest joy. Whenever she goes out for a meal with friends, she treats them. She is not rich by any means, but she is extremely content with what she has, and she is happy to give away what she has. She may not be materially wealthy, but she lives a wealthy life: her days are filled with simplicity, laughter, and good people. Conclusion Do I have the same problem as the deluded businessman? Can I emulate the contented fisherman? --- Weekly Wisdom #160 Interested in receiving Weekly Wisdoms in your email? You can subscribe here.

It seems that the two things people chase nowadays are wealth and prestige. Last week, we looked at how true wealth comes from contentment, featuring the story of the fisherman and the businessman. This week, let's look at prestige. Image by Luku Muffin on Unsplash Prestige basically means having the respect, even admiration, of others. After all, it's human nature to want to be liked by others. Many people think being famous or having lots of power is the same as having prestige, but if someone of high authority has bad character, would you respect them? There's a Chinese proverb that says prestige comes from yielding (貴在知退). Logically speaking, everyone likes a humble person and someone who tries to showoff or exude arrogance. But rather than logically explaining too much, here is a story to illustrate this proverb. In ancient China, the country of Zhao was second in power to the country of Qin. The Emperor of Zhao recently appointed a new minister named Lin Xiangru (蔺相如) to his personal council of advisors. General Lian Po (廉颇) was very unhappy with this decision because he felt Lin didn’t deserve the position. General Lian Po earned his position in the council by rising his life out on the battlefield, whereas Minister Lian simply studied books. General Lian Po would often publicly show disrespect to Minister Lin, such as by having his horse carriage purposefully bump into Minister Lin’s horse carriage. Minister Lin always yielded to General Lian. One time, Minister Lin’s servant asked, “Why are you always yielding to General Lian Po? Isn’t that cowardly?” Minister Lin replied, “Today, the country of Qin is the most powerful. Why do they not invade our country? It’s because they know the country of Zhao has two powerful and wise people: General Lian Po and myself. If they knew that General Lian Po and I have conflict, then they wouldn’t hesitate to invade us.” When General Lian Po heard about this, he felt extremely ashamed and said, “I act in the heat of the moment, but Lin is able to remain calm and think of the whole country’s citizens!” He then sincerely apologized to Lin, and the two became great friends. Commentary The first and obvious lesson from the story is that we naturally respect and admire Minister Lin for being humble and yielding towards General Lian Po, hence Minister Lin's prestige is real, long-lasting prestige. The second lesson is that those with a big heart naturally attract prestige compared to those with a small heart. Minister Lin had the whole country in his heart, hence he garnered the respect of the whole country. The third lesson is that even though General Lian Po had power, his arrogance tarnished his reputation, but he redeemed himself after apologizing and changing his behavior. The fourth lesson related to prestige is that we need to know our strengths and yield everything else. No one is good at everything. Minister Lin never compared himself to General Lian Po; he knew that he was a scholar who could give good advice to the Emperor; he never tried to improve his military expertise to compete with General Lian Po. A truly prestigious person focuses on their strengths to make the best contributions to society, while the average person tries to be a jack-of-all-trades but master-of-none. My Experience I am on very good terms with my school because I like to yield the good teaching time slots to other teachers, and I have the school's best intentions at heart. Most teachers want a normal 9 to 5 teaching schedule (this schedule got ruined during COVID-19 when most of our international students returned to Asia), but I told the school I am fine with teaching night class and I'm even fine to not have any classes and just do course development; I want the other teachers to be happy, especially since their situations are tougher than mine. I didn't try to get prestige, but it seems I naturally got a good reputation among the school staff. I've also found that a sincere apology along with changed behavior can indeed redeem one's reputation. For example, two of my students had a rather public conflict in front of the class. After I guided them to be more humble, apologize to each other, and later even praise each other (changed behavior is key), both their reputations were redeemed and improved. Concluding Thoughts Where in my life could I be more yielding? Where in my life could I have a bigger heart? --- Weekly Wisdom #161 Interested in receiving Weekly Wisdoms in your email? You can subscribe here.

After my spectacular debut poem as a philosophic poet, I'm going to do another poem today! Just kidding, I'm actually just translating a short verse from Lao Tzu's Dao De Jing, but I did try to make the translation sound poetic. If I had to name this poem, I would call it, "Accomplishing Greatness." Big arises from small. Much arises from few. Return hate with virtue. Solve the difficult when it's still easy. Accomplish the grand through the small details. Original text: 大小多少。报怨以德。图难于其易，为大于其细。 Source: Dao De Jing, Chapter 63 Image Source: Unsplash Commentary "Big arises from small. Many arises from few." This line reminds me of The Argument of the Growing Heap, which states, "If ten coins are not enough to make a man rich, what if you add one coin? What if you add another? Finally, you will have to say that no one can be rich unless one coin can make him so." To relate this to our daily lives, we need to break down big goals into small recurring actions and then persist in those actions. My newsletter (and later blog) is an example of this line. What started as a tiny weekly newsletter three years ago, through consistency, has now become a website that has had over 3000 visitors in its first year. "Return hate with virtue." When I first read these four lines, I felt this second line was out of place. The other three lines are all telling us the importance of small matters, why was there a random line about hate and virtue in the middle? Then I realized that all sages, be it Confucius, Lao Tzu, Socrates, Seneca, or the Buddha, teach people to succeed in their virtues first and foremost. After all, if you want to achieve anything great in life, your virtues are bound to be tested. An example that illustrates this line is of a person named Dou Yanshan (竇燕山) from the Five Dynasties period in China about 1000 years ago. One of his servants stole two hundred thousand dollars from him, which was a lot of money! The servant was very scared about how his master might punish him, so he fled to another country. He also left his daughter there with a note saying, "Sell my daughter to collect the debt I owe you." Dou Yanshan didn't respond with anger or disgust, but rather, he chose to forgive the servant and raised the young girl as his own daughter. Aside from this, he also accumulated many other virtuous deeds throughout his life, which made him a recorded role model in Chinese history. Although the servant didn't treat Dou Yanshan with "hate" per se, I interpret "hate" here as any vice or ill-intentioned behavior. Being a person of great virtues like Dou Yanshan is a big task, and it is accomplished through the accumulation of small matters, such as being patient towards others when they talk too much or being warm-mannered towards others when they make small mistakes. "Solve the difficult when it's still easy." All big problems start off as small problems that can be solved easily. Being able to detect small problems and nip them right away is crucial. An example that comes to my mind is health: people don't get major diseases out-of-the-blue; it's accumulated over time. A couple of years ago, when I got a really bad skin illness, at first, I thought it was an allergic reaction to something I ate recently. Later, I learned that I had accumulated toxins for multiple years in the past, and this skin disease showed up after my accumulation surpassed the tipping point. Healing from that illness took over year. Another example is relationship health. Don't let minor miscommunications or unhappiness slide under the rug. Solving these small problems accumulates wins in the relationship, while neglecting them accumulates resentment. If the resentment reaches a tipping point, then the "easy" has become "difficult", and you'll need the virtues of someone like Dou Yanshan to keep the relationship alive. "Accomplish the grand through the small details." This line reminds me of the phrase "Focus on the process", which I learned from Ryan Holiday in his book, The Obstacle is the Way. Holiday explains, “The process is about doing the right things, right now. Not worrying about what might happen later, or the results, or the whole picture.” Happiness Gretchen Rubin also says that a key to happiness is to "Enjoy the process." Many people delay their happiness until after they achieve something big. But that moment of happiness is fleeting. If we enjoy the process, then we can have long-term happiness that is not dependent on the result. Throughout these past few years, I've focused on doing the small details, which is writing the weekly newsletter or blog post, with my best effort. Then I just let the outcome be whatever it is. A big reason I persisted is because I enjoy the process. Whereas the first line emphasizes the importance of persisting in small actions, this fourth line is telling us to do those small actions well. Grand achievements are accomplished by persistence plus conscientiousness in the small matters. Conclusion Break down big goals into small actions and then persist in them. Build your moral character by responding to vice with virtue. Detect problems while they're small and nip them right away. Focus on and enjoy the process. --- Weekly Wisdom #159 Interested in receiving Weekly Wisdoms in your email? You can subscribe here

This past week, I faced a situation that made me reflect on a lesson I learned many months ago from this podcast between Jay Shetty and Will Smith. The lesson is that we should not use the outcome as a measure of the quality of our decisions or the quality of our being. As Will Smith said, "When you try to use the outcome as a measure of the quality of your own being, that is the kiss of death…You can do everything right, and it still goes wrong in terms of the outcome." Image by @tingeyinjurylawfirm on Unplash For example, we might act with kindness and consideration towards others, but others respond rudely. Or one person does things properly while another cheats, and the one who cheats gets away with it. We shouldn't get upset at the negative outcome, nor use the outcome as a measure of the quality of our decisions or actions. We should make decisions with proper due diligence, and then let go of any attachment to the outcome. If the outcome goes well, great. If it doesn't, then reflect on whether or not you should've acted differently. If not, then we can rest well in our conscience. My Story Last Wednesday, I started a new semester of online teaching, and this course requires an online textbook for the students. I had emailed the school about the online textbook last Monday, and they said they already placed the order. On Wednesday, I still didn't get the e-textbook codes. I thought maybe I should travel to the school and pick up a physical textbook so that I can take pictures for the students because they need the textbook for their homework. But I decided to wait because I could still manage a few classes without the textbook. On Monday, I asked the school again, and they said they would call the textbook company, but they expect the textbook should be here very soon. I told them if I don't get the textbook by Wednesday, then I will go pick up the physical textbook because I can't continue anymore without the textbook after Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon, the textbook still had not arrived, so I made the trip to the school. Shortly after I made the trip, the e-textbook codes arrived. At first, I was tempted to think, "Are you kidding me. I JUST went to pick up the textbook and then the codes arrived?" But I've been working on my bad habit of complaining, so I resisted the urge to get annoyed. Then I remembered this lesson from Will Smith, and I thought, "Well, I made the right decision based on the available information at the time. I kept my word and stuck to my intentions for the sake of the students. No one could've predicted that the textbook codes would come in the afternoon, and if they didn't come, I would definitely have needed the physical textbook for the next lesson." --- Weekly Wisdom #158 Interested in receiving Weekly Wisdoms in your email? You can subscribe here.

Image Source One time while Confucius was with his students, a student named Zi Lu asked, "Teacher, should I immediately put into practice what I have heard?" Confucius replied, "You have your father and elder brothers to consult first, why would you be so hasty to act?" Another student named Ran Qiu then asked Confucius the same question, "Teacher, should I immediately put into practice what I have heard?" Confucius replied, "Yes, immediately put into practice what you have heard." A third student, Gong Xi Hua, was perplexed after watching this exchange. He then asked Confucius, "Zi Lu asked you if he should immediately put into practice what he learned, and you told him to first consult his father and elder brothers. Ran Qiu asked you the same question and you told him yes. Why?" Confucius replied, "Ran Qiu tends to draw back, thus I urged him forward. Zi Lu tends to rush forward, hence I drew him back." Story Source: The Analects of Confucius, Xian Jin Chapter Commentary Lesson 1: Audience awareness Most of us speak because we feel like speaking, but sages like Confucius speak only what's beneficial to others. Their audience awareness score is 100%, while us normal people are far from 100%. If we could all be more considerate in our speech, imagine how much happier and harmonious we would all be! This past week, my mother was busy counting some seeds when I asked her a question, and she said "Wait, I'm busy". I didn't even observe if the listener is able to listen. Another time, my mother said her stomach isn't feeling well, and then later in the day I asked if she wanted some black peppercorns in the soup I was cooking. She said, "My stomach is not feeling well, I just want something plain." If I had paused to think before I spoke, I would've already known the answer. Lesson 2: There's no one-size-fit all solution. Solutions need to be tailored for your specific situation. Just because something worked for others doesn't mean it's suitable for you, and just because it's suitable for you doesn't mean it'll work for others. An easy-to-understand example is health: different people's body situations require different foods, exercises, and sleep amounts. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. To give another example, in my experience as a teacher, if an irresponsible student has thick skin, I can scold him and then he will do his work; nice encouragement wouldn't help. But if an irresponsible student also has low self-esteem, then I need to encourage her and build her confidence; scolding would make things worse. Summary Through his actions, Confucius taught us to be considerate in our speech and to give advice tailored to that specific person's situation. -- Weekly Wisdom #157 Interested in receiving Weekly Wisdoms in your email? You can subscribe here.

It’s the 3-year anniversary of the Weekly Wisdom Newsletter! To celebrate this occasion, I’ve compiled a list of the top wisdoms from you, the readers! A big thank you to the people who shared your top wisdoms, as well as all the readers for supporting the newsletter. It’s been my honor to seek out and share wisdom with you these past years! Without further ado, here are the top wisdoms from readers: Seneca on ambition: “It is inevitable that life will be not just very short but very miserable for those who acquire by great toil what they must keep by greater toil.” (Newsletter #4) Toothbrushing tip: After brushing your teeth, don't rinse rigorously with water. Instead, rinse with mouthwash or a little bit of water to retain more of the helpful fluoride on the teeth. (Newsletter #21) The Four Tendencies: I wrote a summary of this personality framework here. Lots of people have told me this framework has been very useful for them. [Newsletter #27] Peter Crone on freedom: In the subconscious mind, most people have feelings of being not wanted or not enough or not loved, which can result in energy-draining behavioral adaptations like being a perfectionist or a people-pleaser, which then creates a lot of stress and anxiety. Once we are aware of these unhelpful subconscious programming, their effect on us fades away, and in their absence, you feel a sense of peace. [Newsletter #66] Esther Perel on relationship expectations: In the past, most of our needs were met by a small village composed of our family, extended communities, and religious institutions. In modern society, we ask one person to meet ALL our needs (e.g., belonging, support, security, finances, community, intimacy, being valued, being loved). That's a tall order! [Newsletter #91] Rangan Chaterjee on social media detox: "I learned that shutting yourself off from the noise of the world can be wonderful...I learned how much extra time there is in the day when I don't mindlessly click on the apps...I will be more mindful of how much time I spend on social each day. I will go through the list of people I follow and make sure they are people who have values consistent with my own. I like following people with views that are different to mine but I don't follow people whose posts are full of hate and anger. If I don't protect my own digital world, no one else will do it for me." [Newsletter #98] The 85% Rule: If you tell top athletes to run at their 85% capacity rather than 100%, they will run faster because performance requires a degree of relaxation and form. This rule can apply for mental performance too. [Newsletter #105] Confucius on relationships: "The Way of Confucius is but Devotion and Consideration." In other words, be strict with yourself and lenient towards others. [Newsletter #150] Shang-Chi’s lesson on relationships: People need cheerleaders not critics. If you want people to change, use positive encouragement rather than criticism. [Newsletter #151] Seneca on desire and frugality: "No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have." [Newsletter #152] Random Details While we’re at it, I might as well share some interesting things that have happened to the newsletter over the past few years. 1: In Newsletter #27, I wrote, “To understand your personality better, you take can a free test here.” A friend replied me with this picture: Take can 😉 2: I have never missed a week. But there was one week where I accidentally scheduled two wisdoms to be sent on the same day.😅 3: When I started the Weekly Wisdom Blog last year in honour of the 2-year anniversary, I originally wanted to put all the past newsletters on there. That never ended up happening because of time requirements. But for the past couple of months, I’ve been uploading new newsletters onto the blog. Better late than never! 4: After I made an unsubscribe link, I got an email saying someone wanted to unsubscribe. When I checked, this person wasn’t even on my mailing list. I then emailed the person and asked how she unsubscribed if she’s not on my mailing list. I never got a reply. 😳 5: A stranger in Vietnam joined my mailing list. I later met this person in a zoom workshop that I hosted! 😆 --- That's all for this week's newsletter. Thanks again for your continued support! If you think someone else would find this newsletter useful, please encourage them to sign up here. Have a wise week ahead! 😄

I recently finished reading The Scientific Proof of Causal Reincarnation by Dr. Zhong Maosen, and it's one of those life-changing books that I wish I had known about way earlier in life! Here is a clickable table of contents to help you navigate this article: Introduction Remarks Area 1: The Existence of The Soul Example Case: A Soul That Bought a House Area 2: People Who Remember Their Past Lives Example Case: The Pollock Twins Area 3: Reincarnation Studies Using Hypnosis Example Case: Alan Lee, Former Pharaoh and Alien Area 4: Studies of Life in Different Dimensions Example Case: Capturing a Picture of a Spirit Area 5: The Study of Supernatural Power On Reincarnation On Relationships On Our World On Karma and Causality How to Transcend Reincarnation and Suffering Introductory Remarks In the west, mainstream culture regards reincarnation, spirits, ghosts, and the like as superstition because they cannot be seen by the naked eye. I was raised with this mentality, but this book did an excellent job to convince me that reincarnation is not woo-woo superstition. The book used tons of scientific case studies from hardcore scientists, and in these case studies, the scientists concluded without a shadow of a doubt that reincarnation must exist. This follows the scientific spirit of “a hypothesis must be true if it cannot be proven wrong.” Author Background: Dr. Zhong Maosen To give some quick background on the author, Dr. Zhong Maosen graduated from a high-ranking Chinese university for undergrad, then he got an MBA and PhD in the US from Louisiana Tech University. He taught at the University of Texas and Kansas State University for several years. Later, he studied under the Buddhist master Chin Kung, and then he delivered a speech about reincarnation in Taiwan in 2006. That speech was then transcribed and translated to become this book. You can watch the whole speech (~6 hours) with English subtitles here. Purpose of the Book Dr. Maosen wrote this speech/book to help Westerners with a scientific mindset to accept reincarnation, as well as to promote world peace because if people understand karma, then they naturally wouldn’t do bad deeds. The author also hopes to help us transcend the suffering of reincarnation as evidenced by the final chapter of the book. These scientific studies fall under five areas: The existence of the soul People who remember their past lives Reincarnation studies using hypnosis Studies of life in different dimensions The study of supernatural power I appreciate how the author doesn’t just use scientific case studies to prove that reincarnation is real, but also weaves these case studies in such a way to teach us about karma, our world, and how to transcend suffering. Without further ado, here are my summary notes from the book. Area 1: The Existence of The Soul Western science has proven the existence of the soul through studying near-death-experiences and astral projections. Near-Death-Experiences (NDE) A NDE is when a surgery patient almost dies, then their soul travels outside their body, allowing them to observe the room like a hovering spirit. Later, the patient recovers and can tell others what they saw and experienced. According to the well-known American research company, Gallup, at least 13 million adults who are still alive today have reported having NDEs where their soul went out-of-body. Reports of NDEs are often published in famous medical journals such as The Journal of Near-Death Studies and The Lancet. British doctor Sam Parnia conducted experiments where he hung a piece of wood from the ceiling above a surgery table and put some objects on the wood. More than 100 patients had near-death-experiences on that surgery table, and many were able to accurately describe what they saw on the wood when their souls left the body and drifted to the top of the room. Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross has researched more than 20,000 cases and confirmed there are a variety of near-death experiences. Her books are popular around the world and include On Life After Death and On Death and Dying. Astral Projections Astral projections are when people can voluntarily separate their souls from their bodies. Professor Charles Tart at the University of California conducted scientific experiments on healthy people who are able to do astral projection. He used a computer to print out a randomly generated 5-digit number, then he put that paper on a high shelf. He told his subjects to lie down, separate their soul from their body, float to the top of the room, memorize the number on the paper, then come back to the body and say the number. One woman was able to do this within minutes. The mathematical probability of guessing correctly is 1 in 100,000, yet that woman did it correctly multiple times. Example Case: A Soul That Bought a House Here's a quick story from the book: "A woman in Ireland often had astral projection experiences. One time, while she was astral projecting, she saw a house that she was fond of. Afterward, her soul visited this house several times. She really liked the house, from the inside to the outside, from the furniture to the layout. She liked it all. But she did not know where this house was. Later, she and her husband moved from Ireland to London. They searched the advertisements for a bargain house and visited a few. The woman immediately recognized the house she had seen in her astral projections. From the inside to the outside as well as the layout, the decoration, the color, everything was exactly the same as what she saw. And the price was surprisingly cheap! The agent warned them that the house was haunted, but they decided to buy it anyway. So, they made an appointment to meet with the owner. As soon as they saw each other, the owner screamed out loud, “Ah! It is you, the ghost!” Area 2: People Who Remember Their Past Lives Professor Ian Stevenson from the University of Virginia has spent over 40 years to compile over 3000 cases of reincarnation where people remember their past lives. He has published several books, the masterpiece of which is Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. In case you’re wondering, he does not have any religious connections since he says that would affect the credibility of his research. Dr. Zhong shares many case studies in this area, such as Shanti: A young girl who visits her past life’s family, could accurately recognize each person, knew her past-life husband’s secrets, and even cried when she saw her past life’s son. Jasbir and Shankar: The soul of a 22-year-old man possessed the dead body of a three-year-old boy and could explain his past life and how he was murdered without anyone knowing. Venerable Chao Kung: A man who died right before his sister gave birth, then his soul went to see the baby and ended up going into that baby. He retained all his memories after being reborn as an infant. Wang Yangming: A senior monk to prophesized his future life, which was proven true. Parrot is owner’s past husband: After a woman’s husband died, she bought a parrot. After the parrot learned to talk, he said he is the woman’s past husband and could accurately describe intimate marriage details. Example Case: The Pollock Twins The Pollock family had two daughters named Joanna and Jacqueline. On May 5, 1957, when Joanna and Jacqueline were 11 and 6 years old, a car drove onto the sidewalk and killed these two girls. In October 1958, the mother gave birth to twin sisters and named them Gillian and Jennifer. When these twins were between 2-4 years old, they could remember their past lives as Joanna and Jacqueline. When investigators tested them, the two sisters would retrieve their favorite toys from their previous life and even used the made-up names that the deceased sisters had given the toys. One time, the girls drove past their previous life’s school and said, “Hey! That’s the school we studied at before!” even though they were still too young to go to school. In the previous life, the older sister (Joanna) loved to teach her younger sister (Jacqueline) to write. In this life, the older twin (Gillian) learned writing quickly, while the younger twin (Jennifer) struggled to hold a pen correctly and clasped the pen in her fist, just as Jacqueline had before. The twins were also born with birthmarks in the same locations as their deceased sisters. From the thousands of cases he studied, Professor Stevenson theorized that talent acquisition and birthmarks can be carried over lifetimes. How else can we explain a musical genius like Mozart who was composing complex symphonies before age 6? For birthmarks, the place where someone was killed might result in a birthmark in the next life. Area 3: Reincarnation Studies Using Hypnosis A state of hypnosis is very similar to a state of meditation; the hypnotized person feels peaceful and concentrated and sometimes can recall incidents from far in their past. Doctors of psychology invented this method to help patients find the root cause of their symptom. By recalling these traumatic incidents, the patient can settle their mind and return to normal. Some doctors unexpectedly found their patients remembering details from past lives. This ignited reincarnation studies via hypnosis. The number of people engaged in such research is considerable, and it academics and doctors in psychiatry and psychology. Famous people include Dr. C.J. Ducasse, Dr. Helen Wambach, Dr. Edith Fiore, Dr. R. Woolger, Dr. Rick Brown, and Dr. Brian Weiss. There are tons of cases in this area. For example, just Dr. Brian Weiss has treated over 20,000 cases of mental disorders related to past lives. He is famous for the book Many Lives Many Masters. Another expert, Dr. Bryan Jameison, accumulated over 40 years of experience in this field and is famous for many books, including The Search for Past Lives. Dr. Zhong shares many case stories such as Sailor Jim: A man who had a fear of water due to being drowned in a submarine in his past life. Catherine: A woman who had many phobias, each with a different traumatic cause from a different past life. Alan Lee: A man who recalled 16 past lives, including that of a Pharaoh (which was verified to be historically accurate) and even an alien spirit on the planet of Neptune! Sylvester Stallone: He was a boxer in his previous life. No wonder his acting as a boxer looked so realistic! Barbara: This woman developed an inexplicable fear for birds at age 26. Under hypnosis, she recalled a past life where she was a white man who raped a Native American girl. The girl’s family then sent kidnappers, who tied him up, dragged him to the desert, cut his chest, and left him to die. Vultures then came to eat him, and he was literally scared to death. That year he was 26, the same age that Barbara developed the inexplicable fear of birds. A group of 1970’s Hippies: They were Native Americans in their past lives who got killed by the new immigrants to the US. They were reborn as children into these white families to seek revenge, hence they were very rebellious and caused social disorder. Through past life regression therapy, many therapists have helped people with mental disorders find the root source of their problem in their previous lives. Once the person is aware of the cause of the problem, the problem starts to fade away. Example Case: Alan Lee, Former Egyptian Pharaoh Alan Lee is a 38-year-old Philadelphia native. He is a middle-school dropout, and after receiving a cancer diagnosis, he went to see Dr. Irving Mordes for hypnotherapy. During the hypnosis, he recalled being a pharaoh named Kallikrates between 344-341 BC. In the hypnotic state, he could speak ancient Egyptian fluently and even write Egyptian hieroglyphs. His spoken tone and attitude were arrogant, as if he were a supreme king. The whole session was recorded. Later, Dr. Mordes collaborated with Maryland State University to check whether what Alan Lee said matched the historical records, and indeed they did! His hieroglyph writing were also correct. The only thing the researchers couldn’t verify was if his spoken Egyptian was correct because no one alive today can speak ancient Egyptian. But we can confidently say that this middle school dropout wouldn’t falsely pretend to speak ancient Egyptian out of the blue. Alan Lee recalled 16 past lives under hypnosis, and in one of those lives, he said he lived on the planet Neptune in our solar system! He said he was a spirit in that life, not existing in physical form. Later in that life, he came to Earth and existed in the flesh. At that time, humans hadn’t even appeared on Earth yet. He recalled his name to be Nolan, and in his hypnotic state, he demonstrated the language of Neptune as a high-pitched tone. He also wrote down characters of that language, which look similar to the sign language that we have nowadays. Area 4: Studies of Life in Different Dimensions Different dimensions refer to lives that cannot be seen by our naked eyes. Westerners might call them ghosts, deities, heavenly beings, or angels. Talking with Spirits by Radio Dr. Marcello Bacci communicated with spirits using radio technology. Experts in supernatural science, as well as mothers of deceased children often came to participate in these experiments. In one recording, a child’s voice said through the radio, "Dear mother! Don’t be sad. One day you will eventually know our mystery. When you leave the body, you will find out that your soul has entered a different level of life." Dr. Bacci collected abundant amounts of data over decades. One day, a critical piece of technology was missing from the radio, but the spirits still talked as usual, proving that the communication isn't even reliant on our technology. Capturing an Image of a Spirit In February 2004, an Indian professor and a Japanese anthropology student went to live in an indigenous tribe on a forest reservation in India. One day, they walked to a sacred graveyard that was off-limits to outsiders, but they didn’t know that. The Japanese student posed in front of a grave and when the Indian professor took the picture, the student fell unconscious. The village elders came, chanted a mantra, gave then fallen student some medicine, and then the student recovered. Later, when the Indian professor went back to his university and went through the pictures, he saw a spirit standing behind the Japanese student in that photo he took. Image Source: Dr. Zhong's talk on reincarnation, time stamp 41:42. We can speculate that the spirit living there got offended by this student’s impoliteness and knocked him unconscious. Why could the digital camera capture the image? Well, 98% of the universe is invisible to our naked eye. Only 2% of the optical spectrum can be detected by our eyes. The photosensitivity of the digital camera is broader than the human eye, so it could capture the image of different dimensions. Area 5: The Study of Supernatural Power Some people are recognized as having supernatural power, such as curing incurable diseases, seeing the past, or predicting the future. The book focuses on Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), who treated 14,000 cases of illness that doctors couldn’t treat. Cayce diagnosed 2500 cases related to reincarnation. Examples include: A woman who had severe allergies: Cayce observed it’s because she poisoned many others as a chemist in her past life. Cayce instructed her how to repent, which finally cured her. A woman who was blind since birth: Cayce observed it’s because in a past life, she was a barbarian that tortured enemies by blinding them. Cayce instructed her on how to repent, and within three months, she acquired 10% vision. A woman with extremely painful menstruation: Cayce observed it’s because in a past life, she was a Catholic nun who used the bible to chastise others harshly in public, which made them ashamed to see people. Hence this life, she was horrible menstruation that made her ashamed to see people. In all these cases, doctors couldn’t cure the person’s illness because the illness was caused by past-life karma. Cayce explains that karma is similar to a boomerang: “Whatever you do, the impact of karma will come back to you. If you do good deeds, you will get good rewards. If you do evil deeds, you will get evil retributions.” That concludes the five areas of scientific studies for reincarnation. The rest of this article share lessons that the author weaves throughout all the case studies in the book. On Reincarnation In most spiritual practices, it is common knowledge that we are not the body. We are simply inhabiting the body temporarily. Reincarnation is like our soul looking for a new house. This begs the question, why can’t most of us remember our past lives? Dr. Zhong explains that suffering in the womb causes us to forget our previous lives. A good death leads to a higher rebirth, but a good death can only be achieved by cultivating good virtues. Sage education is all about cultivating good virtues, and sage education starts with filial piety, which means being dutiful and respectful towards our parents. Many people might have negative relationships with parents and other people due to past karma, and only sage education can turn past enemies into loving family members. On Relationships The Buddha explained that there are four karmic relationships among people: Collecting debt Repaying debt Returning a debt of gratitude Seeking revenge For example, why is it that some people you meet, you naturally get along really well with, yet some people you meet you instantly dislike them for no logical reason? This has to do with past life karma. We can also use the family as an example. Some families get along really well; that's probably a karmic relationship of repaying gratitude. Other families are full of conflict, which is influenced by a karmic relationship of collecting debt or seeking revenge (such as the 1970's Hippies mentioned earlier). The way we treat others in the past, they will treat us the same way in a future life. For example, Dr. Zhong explained that the reason why science chastises religion right now is because when science was still new, religious people chastised scientists. On Our World The world is manifested by the heart and altered by consciousness. By “the heart”, we refer to our true nature, which is beyond life and death. By “consciousness”, we refer to our thinking mind, which is full of attachment, discrimination, and wandering thoughts. Our mind is actually able to change physical matter. Dr. Masaru Emoto proved this in his famous water experiments. He took two glasses of water, and on one glass, he taped a paper with vicious words (e.g. disgusting, annoying), and on another glass he taped wonderful words (e.g., love, thankful). After a period of time, he used a high-powered microscope to observe how the water would crystalize in cold temperatures. Image Source From the picture, we can see that water changes in accordance with the feeling that we send to it. Just think how much of our body (and planet Earth) is water, and how that water is being affected by our thoughts. Furthermore, it’s not just water that gets affected, but all matter. For example, Dr. Emoto then did an experiment with rice. Here's a 1-minute video summary: We can see that the rice that was given positive emotions stayed pleasant, while the rice given negative emotions or indifference went bad. On Karma and Causality At the end of the book is a transcript of a lecture given by Venerable Master Chin Kung on the law of causality. You can watch the lectures with English subtitles here. Master Chin Kung emphasizes the importance of karma education by saying, “How can we save people from creating evil karma? How can we save this turbulent society? There is nothing more effective than to promote the education of causality.” He then says that to promote education on karma, we must understand these five basic rules of causality: Cause and its effect happen at different times Cause and effect run through three time periods Small causes result in big effects Good and evil karma do not offset each other Causality is not illusive, karma will not be undermined 1: Cause and Its Effect Happen at Different Times Cause and effect is analogous to farming. After you plant a seed (cause), it takes time for the seed to reach fruit; it’s not going to be immediate. Furthermore, it takes proper conditions, such as sunlight and water. The same is true for karmic seeds. If you do a good deed now and immediately receive a good reward, the reward is not a result of the good deed you did recently, but rather the result of good karma from your past. Your current good deed was a “helping condition” to help that past seed fruit good results for you faster. If you do good deeds now but receive bad retributions, it does not mean your good deeds will not have good results. It means that your past bad karma has now matured and appeared first. However, the good deeds you do now will act as a “barrier-condition” to lessen the bad retributions from that bad cause. If you weren’t doing good deeds now, the bad retribution would be even worse. This is the intricate relationship between cause, condition, and effect. Many people do not believe in karma and causality because they don’t understand this foundational principle. They see people committing sins and still enjoying good fortune, or they see good people who live in poverty and indignity. They then conclude that there is no punishment for evil deeds and no rewards for good deeds. In reality, the people who are committing sins right now yet still enjoying good fortune must have accumulated great goodness in their past lives, and their fortune has not been used up yet. After their fortune is depleted, the dreadful retributions will appear. The law of causality will never go wrong. 2: Cause and Effect Run Through Three Time Periods The three time periods are past, present, and future. The Buddha Dharma states, If you want to know your past lives, look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future lives, look into your present actions. The Buddha Dharma also explains that giving results in receiving: Giving wealth results in being wealthy in the future Giving knowledge and wisdom results in intelligence and wisdom in the future Giving fearlessness and peace-of-mind results in health and longevity in the future For example, if you suffer poverty and illness in this lifetime, you must have committed the karma of miserliness and killing in past lifetimes. If you are wealthy, you must have given a lot of wealth to help others in past lives. There are four types of retributions based on when the retribution manifests: Current life retribution*: The cause is planted this life, and the result is received this life. Next Life Retribution: The karmic seeds planted in this lifetime will beget retribution in the next life. This is the most common phenomenon. Later Lives Retribution: The karma seeds planted in this lifetime will beget retribution in the third, fourth, or even later lifetimes. Uncertain Time Retribution: The karma seeds planted in this lifetime can receive retribution in any lifetime depending on what conditions you encounter. *For current life retributions, this happens when you create tremendously big good or evil karma, hence you receive the result in this life. The book Liao Fan’s Four Lessons talks about this kind of situation, proving that we can change our karma in our current lifetime. The result in this life is called the “flower-retribution.” It is like flowers blooming before a plant bears fruit. The real karmic effect is in future lives, and the severity of the “fruit-retribution” will be even greater. 3: Small Causes Result in a Big Effects A small watermelon seed buried in the dirt will grow into many big watermelons, each of which is full of many more watermelon seeds. The same is true for karmic seeds. As proverb goes, “Give one and beget ten thousand in return.” Example 1: One Sincere Act of Goodness Results in Huge Karmic Rewards A servant was taking some spoiled food out of the house to dump. When she stepped outside, she saw the solemn and magnificent demeanor of the Buddha. Her heart gave rise to deep and profound respect. She wanted to make an offering to the Buddha, but all she had was the spoiled food in her hand. Just as she hesitated, the Buddha began to smile and emit light. He came over and happily used His bowl to scoop some of the spoiled food from the old woman’s hands. The Buddha turned His head and told Anada, “This woman is wholeheartedly devout. Because of the merit of her sincere offering to a Buddha, in the future, she will have fifteen kalpas, such a long time, to enjoy happiness in heaven. And after the fifteenth kalpa, she would descend into the human realm where she would have the karmic condition of being a monk.” *A kalpha is an unimaginably long time. There isn’t one definition for kalpha, but at the low estimate it would be 16 million years, while at the high estimate it would be 1.3 trillion years. Example 2: A Single Evil Act Results in Tragic Retributions for Kalpas One of the Buddha’s students was named Maudgalyāyana. In a past life, he tried to kill his blind parents. He pretended that some robbers came and then he started to brutally beat his parents. Unexpectedly, his parents did not call on him to save them, but shouted for their son to run for his life. He was so moved by his parents’ unconditional love that his conscience returned. He then knelt down and repented for his wrongdoings. Due to this evil karma of intending to kill his own parents, his life was shortened. That was the flower-retribution. The fruit-retribution came after. In the next life, he fell into the torturous hell realm for a very long time. After leaving hell, he still had to endure the misery of the hungry ghost realm and then animal realm. When he finally reincarnated as a human, he was brutally beaten until his bones were pulverized into pieces for 500 lifetimes. This story illustrates why awakened beings like Buddhas and Bodhisattvas fear the cause, while deluded mortals only fear the result. When awakened beings receive bad retribution, the know it is brought about by past bad karma. But when deluded mortals receive bad retribution, they commit more evil such as becoming angry or cheating others in an attempt to benefit themselves. This then creates more evil karma, and each life gets worse and worse. 4: Good and Evil Karma Do Not Offset Each Other Good and evil karmic seeds cannot offset each other. When the conditions are in place, each seed will have its own effect. However, good and evil seeds can affect each other. Planting good seeds now is an “assisting condition” to the previous good karma you have planted; it will increase the effect of good results. It also serves as a “buffering condition” to past bad karma and weaken the bad effect. Conversely, doing evil deeds now will strengthen the influence of past evil karma and weaken the effect of past good karma. 5: Causality is Not Illusive, Karma Will Not Be Undermined The karmic seeds of good and evil are stored in what’s called our Alaya consciousness (Alaya-vijnana). These seeds will never be lost nor deteriorate. When the conditions are in place, the effects will come back upon you. Therefore, as long as we are within the six realms of reincarnation, we can never escape the cause and effect of karma. That is why only deluded mortals dare to create bad karma. Awakened beings dare not create bad karma because they understand that the retribution of causality is exceedingly exact. How to Transcend Reincarnation and Suffering Now we know that the endless birth and death of reincarnation, especially given all our negative karma that we have generated, is very painful and tragic. How can we transcend reincarnation? Although science has discovered proof for reincarnation, it has yet to provide solutions for how to transcend reincarnation. That’s where Buddhism comes into play. Quantum physics is now affirming a lot Buddhist teachings, as explained this video, Where Science and Buddhism Meets: In an article called Religion and Science, Einstein affirmed Buddhism as a non-dogmatic religion that matches the modern scientific need: Buddhism explains that there are six realms of reincarnation, which from lowest to highest are hell, hungry ghost, animal, asura, human, and heaven. The six realms exist because we are deluded. Due to delusion, we create karma, then we suffer retributions. While receiving retributions, we create more karma, and hence we are stuck in never-ending reincarnation. So what are we deluded about? The three most fundamental delusions are Ignorance (Delusion of view and cognition): We see ourselves as separate beings rather than as one entity with everything Discrimination (Delusion of dust-sand): you vs. me, good vs. bad, etc. Attachment (Delusion of Avidya): I want this, I can’t let go of this Even if we understand that wandering thoughts create karma, which then create retributions, we can't stop our wandering thoughts due to "karmic habits". Fortunately, the Buddha prescribed a special method for us: reciting Amitabha and seeking Pure Land rebirth. Amitabha is a Buddha who created the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss to help all sentient beings swiftly attain Buddhahood. To be born there, we simply need to believe in his Pure Land, vow to be born there, and then chant Amitabha. How do we chant? A poem from the great Buddhist laity Xia Lian Ju explains: Amitabha teaches me to recite Amitabha, Listen attentively to my own recitation while reciting; Amitabha, Amitabha... one recitation after the other… It turns out that Amitabha is reciting Amitabha. When chanting Amitabha (either out loud or in our mind), we must focus our attention on this name of Amitabha and pay no attention to our wandering thoughts. It’s quite similar to mantra chanting in that sense, with Amitabha being the mantra. “Amitabha” is our true self-nature, so by listening to this chanting clearly and maintaining this “pure thought” continuously, we will recover our true self-nature little by little. When our mind wanders while chanting Amitabha, we must increase our vigilance right away and bring our wandering thoughts back to “Amitabha.” If you understand the law of cause and effect now, you would believe that Reciting Amitabha is the cause, and becoming a Buddha will be the effect. Try it! You will be amazed, just like the people in this video: Below are two more videos for a short and entertaining explanation of Amitabha. Amitabha Buddha in Minutes What is the Meaning of Namo Amitabha? For more information on related subjects, you can visit MahayanaPurland.org or email team@mahayanapureland.org.

Once, a university professor went to visit a well-respected Zen Master to learn about Zen. The Master first invited him to sit for a cup of tea. The professor sat down and started talking about Zen. The Master quietly prepared and poured the tea. When the tea was filled to the cup's brim, he kept pouring. The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. "It's full! No more will go in!" blurted the professor. "The same with your mind. How can I teach you Zen unless you first empty your cup?" Image Source Commentary Many lessons can be drawn from this story. The main one would be that we can't learn something that we think we already know. Recently, I had two experiences that reminded me of this story. Story 1 I'm teaching a healthcare course this semester, and I was talking to my students about whether western medicine is better or Traditional Chinese Medicine. One student said "I don't trust Chinese medicine, all the people who use it are old-fashioned in thinking and illogical." I said to him, "For you to have such a strong negative reaction to Chinese medicine, I'm guessing you must've had a really bad experience with it in the past, is that right?" He said yes, that the people who recommended Chinese medicine to him in the past left a very negative experience in his mind. A key point I wanted to teach in that discussion is that nothing is 100% always good or always bad; it's about using it correctly. Western medicine is great for emergency life-saving situations, while Chinese medicine is much better for long-term health and chronic-illness prevention. But throughout our Chinese medicine unit, this student indeed was unable to let go of his prejudice towards Chinese medicine, which I felt was a shame because he's a bright student and could have really benefited from using Chinese medicine in his life. Story 2 My mother accidentally shut the car door on her thumb, which resulted in her nail turning blue/purple and swollen. Unlike the student in my class, my mom was prejudiced towards western medicine, thinking it's illogical and naïve. The next day morning, she told me she didn’t sleep well because her thumb started to hurt so much at night. I did a quick internet search and told her she needs to dip her hand in ice water for 30 minutes twice a day. She immediately dismissed my idea and told me she doesn’t need it. I still went ahead and prepared the ice any way, just in case. Shortly after, she changed her mind and decided to give it a try. She ended up using ice water for most of the day. At the end of the day, she told me, "Wow, this western medicine solution was really useful! My thumb is so much better now. I always thought western medicine was dumb because they think cutting off body parts will solve illnesses. But it looks like I got saved by western medicine this time." Conclusion As Epictetus once said, “You can’t learn that which you think you already know.” If you want to learn anything, first empty your mind of all your pre-existing opinions so that you can listen with full respect and attention.

In honor of Thanksgiving, I want to share five things that we can all be thankful for, as well as how to repay gratitude. Image Source 1: Thank you to parents for Raising me and protecting me when I was a helpless infant Sacrificing sleep and foregoing fun activities to raise me Working hard to put food on the table every day Providing shelter Paying for my education Taking care of me when I was sick Sharing whatever good thing you got Selflessly trying to give me what you didn’t have growing up Criticizing me to prevent me from making grave mistakes Pushing me to reach my full potential I will do my best to help you worry less and make you proud. 2: Thank you to teachers for Your tireless dedication to making the future generation ever better Teaching me the knowledge and skills that I now use to support my life I will do my best to put to good use what I have learned. 3: Thank you to the government for providing essential services such as Education Healthcare Transportation Electricity Waste management National defense I will respect the law, the leaders, and pay my taxes. 4: Thank you to all workers in society for everything we use in our daily lives, such as Food Clothes Technology Infrastructure I will respect all professions and do my best in my profession to contribute to society. 5: Thank you to Mother Nature for providing Air Food Water Land …all for free! I will do my best to be an environmentally responsible citizen of the Earth.

Image Source: Unsplash For most of my life, I thought pleasure was the same as happiness. Only after I graduated university did I learn the difference. I sure wish I had known earlier! The world's happiest man, Matthieu Richard, explains the difference between pleasure and happiness in his book Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill. Pleasure is temporary, fleeting, and comes from outside stimulation. Examples include eating delicious food, watching a riveting movie or show, traveling to a new place, getting social media likes, etc. Happiness is a long-lasting feeling of contentment and comfort that comes from within yourself, rooted in the way you think and see the world. When we have true happiness, we wouldn't seek pleasure to distract ourselves from discomfort. Examples of happiness include Having a mindset of gratitude Being content with all that one already has Helping others without expecting anything in return Having a learner attitude towards everything that happens In other words, we can access happiness for free at any time. How awesome is that? Before I learned what true happiness is and how to get it, I often sought out pleasure in the form of delicious food, traveling, computer games, etc. All of these things only provided a temporary distraction from stress and discomfort. After I switched the way I think and view the world, I became a lot more happy and peaceful. I still enjoy pleasures, but I don't seek them to distract myself from stress anymore. 1: Having a mindset of gratitude Before, I used to just focus on what I want, and when I didn't get it, I got stressed or upset. Now, I focus more on repaying gratitude, such as to parents, teachers, employers, country, and Mother Nature. For example, I take care of my parents' health to repay their gratitude. I do my job well to repay gratitude to my employer. I happily pay my taxes to repay gratitude to the government. I do a lot of environmentally-friendly things to repay gratitude to Mother Nature. Living from a mindset of gratitude is a happy place to be. 2: Being content with what I already have Like most people in first-world countries, I'm really fortunate to not really lack anything material wise. I've already written about reducing desires and making best use of what we already have elsewhere, so I won't go into further detail here. 3: Helping others without expecting anything in return I used to help others while expecting something in return. For example, I'll want them to behave a certain way, or expect them to return a favor in the future. This kind of giving is not pure. Now, I just help others because I want the best for them, and I don't care how they respond or if they can help me back. This pure intention brings a lot of happiness and peace. 4: Having a learner attitude towards everything We can't avoid failure and pain in life, but if we can learn something from these experiences, then we turn that pain into learning. Learning gives us the feeling of progress and improvement, which feels good. Conclusion Don't confuse pleasure and happiness. Most people seek out fleeting pleasures from the outside when what they really want and need is long-lasting happiness, which comes from the inside. Hopefully, you've found these four examples useful for your own life. If you want to read more on this topic, check out this article: Rewire Your Mind For Happiness.

"No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have." —Seneca Previously, I wrote about moderating our desires in the Self-Control Poem and in Rewiring Our Minds for Happiness. This quote from Seneca really stood out to me because it combines reducing desires with putting to good use what we already have. If we are told only to reduce our desires, it feels restricting and unpleasant. But Seneca is saying what we want may not be necessary because we already have a good alternative to it. If we don't have a alternative and we have no way of getting that thing, surely we can still find good in what we do have. In this post, I want to share a few examples from my own life. Image Source Example 1: New Vest I wanted to get a Uniqlo vest for my mother since she would sometimes wear mine, which is a bit big for her. When we got to the store and I showed her the vest, she said she doesn't want it because she already has a vest. I asked, "But you've worn mine multiple times...I thought you really like this kind of vest?" She said, "Yeah but that's just a few times, and it was mainly out of convenience since your vest was right there, you weren't using it, and mine was all the way upstairs. I already have a good vest, so I don't need a new one." I admired my mom for not wanting something unnecessary and for putting to good use what she already has. Example 2: Closet Reorganization Since I still work from home, I mainly wear comfy clothes when not working. Recently, with the weather change, I reorganized my closet from summer clothes to fall/winter clothes, and I realized I have so many items of great clothing that I basically forgot about because I haven't worn them in so long. I decided that after I get out of bed, I would change into proper clothes even if I'm not working. This decision let me put to good use all those great items of clothing I have, and it's also made me more alert and diligent because the clothing we wear affects our mental state. Example 3: Pull-Up Bar Around a month ago, I wanted to buy one of those at-home pull-up bars that attach to a door frame, but my mother was worried it would damage the door frame and that I would stop using it after a while. She said, "Why don't you just go use the monkey bars at the park first? The weather is still pretty decent." I decided to follow her advice and walk to the park to use the monkey bars for pull-ups. I thought I'd try it for a week and if I really enjoyed doing pull-ups, then I could assure my mom I would use it if I bought it. Interestingly, I started to really enjoy that short walk to and from the park, the fresh air, and the sunlight. I even met some new people and had great conversations. Later, I found a pull-up bar alternative in my very own closet. Even though I found this alternative, I still preferred walking to the park while the weather still permits. If I had bought the pull-up bar right away, I wouldn't have discovered my enjoyment for walking and the existing alternative in my closet. Example 4: Commuting In the past, I used to commute 2-3 hours roundtrip every day for work. Just sitting or standing there on the bus is quite exhausting, and I wasn't making best use of the time. Later, I decided to listen to education podcasts and take notes on my phone while commuting. It made my commutes so much more enjoyable and productive. Later, I had the choice of driving to work, but I actually chose to commute instead because I valued the time to learn while being transported to work. Example 5: Garden Tower My family is pretty big on eating organic and fresh, so we plant a lot of food in the garden. Earlier this year, I proposed getting the Garden Tower, which is basically a big, compact, multi-level container that can fit 50 plants and costs several hundred dollars. Image Source My mother said, "That's a lot of money to spend on something we may not even need. Let's just properly plan out how we can best use our garden space, and if we indeed feel like our space is not enough, maybe we can consider buying it next year." Later, we got a bunch of big buckets, put them on our patio, and planted a lot of extra food that way. We ended up have more food than we could eat in some weeks. Good thing we didn't buy that Garden Tower or else we might have wasted a lot of food and unused buckets! Example 6: Food Waste Did you know that Americans waste 30-40% of their food? That hurts both the wallet and the planet. Food takes up more space in US landfills than anything else! One reason is that we put food in the back of the fridge and forget about it. Then we find it has gone bad later so we throw it out. To overcome this problem, my family always inspects what's in the fridge every weekend and bring to the front what needs to be eaten soon. We also try to buy produce that can be stored for at least a couple weeks, such as cabbage, brussels sprouts, and root vegetables. I use a tool called Save the Food to look up how to properly store food items for maximum storage life. A second factor is restaurants giving more food than we can eat. If we just leave the leftovers on the plate, the restaurant will throw it out. Instead, we can take the leftovers to go and eat them later at home. A third factor is grocery stores only selling what looks nice and throwing away what doesn't look nice or is not so fresh. When I visit the grocery store, I'll look at the section of discounted food, which usually has food that either looks not so nice or that's going to go bad soon, and I'll buy whatever I can eat in the next day or two to prevent that food from being wasted. It's win-win because it helps my wallet and the planet! Conclusion: In our modern materialistically rich world, most of us nowadays have so much stuff, and we aren't putting all that stuff to its best use, which is kind of a shame. I encourage you to think about how you can put to best use what you already have. It's very pleasant to do and reminds us of how fortunate we are!